My original patent disclosed a collar that was composed of at least one ring of flexible material that is soft enough for the collar to be comfortable for the animal to wear, but having sufficient resilience to stand out from the neck hole of the collar and form a barrier restricting access of the animal's mouth to other parts of its body. That collar received widespread professional and public acceptance and experienced a high degree of commercial success among veterinary professionals and animal owners.
Through the years following the introduction of my original collar, various changes and detailed improvements have been made, both by me and my licensees. One such improvement was the addition of radial stays in the collar to make the flexible material of the collar a firmer barrier to the animal's efforts to reach its body. This also had the effect of dividing the ring of the collar into segments or sections facilitating the folding of the collar into flat form for convenient stacking and storage. Another area of improvement was in the selection of flexible materials, tending toward somewhat more resilience to increase the effectiveness of the collar without sacrificing overall strength, flexibility and comfort.
In addition to my own improvements, others became active in this field. For example, U.S. 2009/0056642 A1, Markfield, discloses a flexible collar that comprises a central padding, for body, between two flexible sheets of material that may be cloth, rubberized cloth, plastic or the like for resistance to staining and for ease of cleaning. Markfield suggests that it is possible to provide advertising or personal messages on the exterior of such collars by known printing processes, although that would be difficult to achieve as ink or other writing or printing substances couldn't penetrate the stain resistant material she specifies, and thus would not provide the much needed professional post-treatment instructions. She also recognizes that collars of this type are provided in a variety of sizes for different animals, and with a variety of means for securing the collar around the animal's neck, including dividing the rings and providing releasable fasteners, or using a drawstring as shown in my original patent. Park, U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,538 B2 discloses a brim or visor for hats that includes a brim cover and a brim insert. The brim cover comprises an upper sheet having an image printed to one side thereof and a lower sheet attached to the upper sheet to form a pocket adapted to receive the brim insert. This visor provides the wearer with the opportunity to display various printed images of their choice, which reflect their personal interests, but doesn't provide the vital means for veterinary professionals to put hand-written post-treatment instructions on the designated panel of the veterinary restraint collar placed on the animal's neck after treatment to provide the continuing care and recovery of animals experiencing injury, surgery, dental or grooming procedures. The utility or use of the visor is decorative and not hand-written. The utility or use of my post-treatment instructions panel is to protect animals in their very vulnerable time of care and recovery from professional veterinary treatment.
The primary purpose of my present invention is to provide an important improvement in veterinary restraint collars that facilitates the care and recovery of the protected animal in a very important way when the animal experiences injury, surgery, dental or grooming procedures.